Marsh Madness (aka Brackishology): Minetta Brook

Writing on his blog, Connected by Nature, Ken Lo described Marsh Madness "as a personal exploration of wetlands – marshes, bogs, fens, swamps, prairie potholes, vernal pools – during the course of the annual NCAA tournament....“Brackishology” is a play on “bracketology,” a term used by sports folks to talk about the selections and matchups or brackets in the elimination tournament."  Consider this essay our entry.

Image: Minetta Stream, Viele (1865) 1874 "water map" of Manhattan, David Rumsey Map Collection (source)

Minetta Brook once ran above ground in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York.  Emerging between 21st and 20th Streets, it flowed through the western section of Washington Square Park to the Hudson River.

Image: Minetta Brook, ca. 1700s, "Cultural Landscape Report, Washington Square Park (2006)" (source)

Image: The Minetta Waters, 1817, "Washington Square Park Phase 1A Archaeological Assessment (2005)"(source)

Before it was a park, a parade ground, and a cemetery, Washington Square Park was "a marsh fed by Minetta Brook."  The land has been described as "so undesirable" because the presence of the brook made it "low and wet" and only suitable for a potter's or pauper's burial ground (Maud Wilder Goodwin et al., Historic New York, 1897).  Victims of the yellow fever epidemics in 1795 and 1797 were also buried there.

In the 1820s, Minetta Brook was redirected from its original course and culverted in order to "dry out the soil" before constructing the park, wrote Julia Solis in New York Underground (2005).  The "contained and underground" brook did not earn Washington Square Park any points in the natural systems and features category of the National Register rating system applied by Jablonski Berkowitz Conservation, Inc. in their 2006 Cultural Landscape Report for NYC Parks.

On the origin of the word Minetta, the NYC Parks website provides the following information:

Local Native Americans called the stream "Mannette," which was translated as "Devil's Water." Over the years, this name was spelled and respelled and spelled again in a variety of configurations: Minnetta, Menitti, Manetta, Minetta, Mannette, and Minetto. The Dutch called the water Mintje Kill, meaning small stream. In Dutch, "min" translates as little, "tje" is a diminuitive, and "kill" translates as stream. The water was also known as Bestavers Killitie, Bestevaas Kelletye, Bestavens Killitie, Bestavers Killatie, and Bestaver's Killetje.

The brook can be "seen" in the curve of Minetta Street (between Bleecker Street and Minetta Lane; the latter is between MacDougal and Sixth Avenue).  According to Hope Cooke in her 1995 book Seeing New York, a dike to traverse the brook was built by freed slaves who settled along the brook on so-called "Negroe-lots," i.e. lots located in the "swampland."  This dike is supposedly "embedded" in Minetta Street.

Cooke also  speculated that trees in the park thrive because of the "underlying streams."  It would be interesting to find out the current location of the (redirected and culverted) brook.  Though the English elm (Ulmus procera) in the northwestern quadrant of the park is not the "Hangman's Elm" of the 1800s (Washington Square Park Phase 1A Archaeological Assessment [pdf]), the tree is very old.  In 1989, NYC Parks estimated that the tree was 310 years; it is now 332 years old (Hangman's Elm wiki).  Might it be the oldest tree on Manhattan?   

Image: Minetta Triangle, facing south

The brook also survives in the names of several area parks: Minetta Triangle, Minetta Playground, and Minetta Green.  Images of fish were carved into the concrete pathways in the Green, I think of the trout that used to run in the brook.

For photographs of an actually existing marsh, check out Kelly's essay about Marsh & Foster Islands in Seattle on the Metropolitan Field Guide blog.

Brackishology is on Twitter @brackishology and #MarshMadness.

Then & Now: Washington Square Park East (Wordless Wednesday)

Image: Washington Square Park (East) from Washington Place, 1892 (photo of photo display)

Image: Washington Square Park (East) from Washington Place, 2011

Bostonians, walk into spring with a scavenger hunt

A couple of weeks ago, I read Kim Foley MacKinnon's Boston Family Scavenger Hunt on the Union Park Press blog which was originally published at TravelingMom.com.  I contacted founder Kim Orlando and received permission from both Kims to publish the clues, only.  The answers can be found here.

Fenway Victory Gardens, Boston, April 2004

The scavenger hunt is based in the Back Bay and Beacon Hill neighborhoods of Boston and suitable for children under 12 years of age.  Kim Foley MacKinnon recommends taking photographs of each location to create a scrapbook of the scavenger hunt.

The clues

1. Read Between the Lions 
2. Slow and Steady Wins the Race 
3. Where Three Famous Women Hang Out at the Mall 
4. The Ugly Duckling was One 
5. Mrs. Mallard Leads the Pack 
6. Former Cow Pasture 
7. Mr. Toad’s Friend 
8. Where the Governor Works 
9. Three signers of the Declaration of Independence rest here 
10. Where Boston Cream Pie and the Parker Roll were Born

Remember, the answers can be found in the original post at TravelingMom.com.

Winter Walk Off on Bleecker Street

Thank goodness for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day because in his Bloom Day post, Les reminded his readers of his Winter Walk Off challenge.

On your own two feet, leave the house and share what can be seen within walking (or biking) distance of your home.  Your post does not have to be a picture-heavy travelogue like mine, unless you want it to be.  Maybe instead you will find some unusual patterns, interesting shadows, signs of spring, a favorite restaurant or shop, questionable landscaping or local eyesores.  Whatever, just keep your eyes and mind open, be creative and have fun, but don't show anything from your own yard.  (emphasis his own)

I do not own a car and my bicycle is in storage (in Massachusetts), so I walk (and occasionally ride the subway). I usually pack my camera but lately I have been taking photographs of specific things as opposed to "things that catch my eye." Anyway, without further ado, here is my Winter Walk Off on (and around) Bleecker Street. All photographs were taken on the last day of winter (calendar-wise) in NYC.

Former Manhattan Savings Institution located on Broadway at Bleecker Street

"Shop houses" on Bleecker between Mulberry and Bowery

Men at work on Bowery

Facade on brickwork

Below Il Mulino on West 3rd, a (President Obama ate here)

Below Il Mulino, b

Made in America

Witch hazel in Winston Churchill Park at 6th Ave and Bleecker

Ovando on Bleecker

Wedding planning: The man (center) seemed to be a planner/designer

Tommy's lawn

Street tree garden

Waiting in line for Magnolia Bakery cupcakes

On Perry Street at Bleecker

Ralph Lauren's bamboo cane grove

Update on Air quality monitoring after an oil leak

Original Post, January 18, 2011: In our post about the fire hydrant marker, I wrote that the next post in this occasional series would be about the fire alarm box.  Instead, it is about an air quality monitoring device I spotted at the Bleecker Street oil leak site.

On December 6, 2009, a significant oil leak of No. 6 heating oil from a boiler room serving 3 and 4 Washington Square Village on Bleecker Street (NYU faculty housing) was discovered.  The university stated that 16,000 gallons of oil were "lost," 4,005 gallons were "recovered," and the remainder which is "tar like" is contained in the surrounding soil.  Community and news outlets such as The Villager reported that "about 5,000 gallons of the leaked No. 6 heating oil" were removed and "about 11,000 gallons of congealed oil in the soil" remain.  (It is interesting to note that community and news media refer to the incident as an "oil spill" while the university refers to it as an "oil leak" (see here).)

The university provides project updates online.  In January 2010, it was "pumping the oil out of the boiler room and cleaning residual oil from the surfaces of the boiler room."  A tree was removed in January of this year for greater access to the site.  The final phase of remediation is scheduled for completion on May 27, 2011 according to the August 2010 remedial action work plan written by Langan Engineering and Environmental Services and submitted to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.

Since the leak, residents have complained of headaches and odors.  The university has responded that oil might be smelled during the clean-up but air quality will be monitored "in accordance with the NYSDOH Community Air Monitoring Program and will be constant and ongoing."  No information about the pollutant(s) being monitored is given though "volatile organic vapors" was mentioned in the Langan report dated May 2010.  The device I photographed on January 13, 2011 is not always on the site so perhaps it is not an air quality monitor or there are other devices on the site I have not noticed.  (Here is a list of air monitoring instruments used by NYS Department of Environmental Conservation).

In 2009, I attended a landscape architecture theses presentation at UC Berkeley.  A master's student, Jesse Jones, had developed a phytoremediation plan for vacant lots in the Lower Bottoms neighborhood of Oakland.  One respondent thought Jones should use plants not only as markers of the types of pollution at each site (plant A = pollution 1 is on site), but also as signals of the stages of cleanup (plant A's leaves are wider than they are long = 85% of the pollutant has been absorbed).  Remediation at the Bleecker Street oil leak site is illegible; no information notifying passersby of the leak has been posted on or near the site. in the Lynchian sense.  The fence surrounding the cleanup site is cloaked in an almost opaque green fabric.  And the information released by the university seems to be the minimum required by the law.  If site cleanup had to rely to some degree on phytoremediation, a la Jones, then residents and passersby, could read the progress of the cleanup of the site.

Thorough cleanup of the leaked No. 6 heating oil is essential due to potential adverse impacts on humans. From the National Park Service (NPS) Environmental Contaminants Encyclopedia:

Fuel oil #6 would be expected to be a skin, eye and respiratory irritant and a CNS depressant from inhalation of large amounts of the vapor or mist. Prolonged or repeated contact with the skin may produce a defatting dermatitis with dryness and cracking. This product may contain substances which have caused kidney damage in laboratory animals [369]. Chronic effects of some of the constituents in fuel 6 (such as naphthalenes) include changes in the liver and kidney [766]. Exposure to petroleum in soil is predominantly of concern through a number of possible exposure pathways, including dermal contact with soil, ingestion of soil, inhalation of soil particulates, and ingestion of contaminated groundwater [824].

Effects on wildlife, specifically in an aquatic environment can be found in the fuel oil 6 encyclopedia entry, too.  On December 31, 2009, a few days after the leak, the New York Times  reported on a health commission study which found that "the highest levels of fine particles, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants in neighborhoods where many residential and commercial buildings burn No. 4 or No. 6 oil."

Stay tuned for the fire alarm box post.

Note: this post has been edited to include more information about No. 6 heating/fuel oil.

Update, January 31, 2011: Photos of the air quality monitoring device located just outside the remediation zone.  (None of the signs on the construction wall indicate that an oil leak remediation is underway.)

Update, March 17, 2011: Over the course of several days earlier this month, we noticed the arrival of a large mound of soil from the oil leak remediation site (see above) adjacent to a local playground. We also saw the soil being sifted and the siting of an air quality monitoring device. Concerned that contaminated soil had been sited and was being cleaned adjacent to a play space, we contacted NYU's Office of Government and Community Affairs. Beth Morningstar, Director, Strategic Assessment and Communications Office of the Executive Vice President, promptly responded to our query for information.  I spoke with Beth on March 14, 2011.

First, the soil will be removed from its current location. Second, the soil was clean, at least the borings tested clean/uncontaminated. Third, the soil was topsoil removed from the oil leak site, above the level of the oil spill. Fourth, the contractor wanted to re-use the topsoil to fill the hole left by the removal of tank number 3 (the source of the soil leak). Fifth, further examination of the soil revealed large (greater than 4") pieces of debris which disqualified the soil for use as backfill (the Washington Square Village apartments apparently were built on landfill). Sixth, clean soil (as determined by the contractor and independently by NYU).  Seventh, NYU used to rely on heating oil No. 6 as a tertiary source of energy; No. 6 has been removed from all the tanks at Washington Square Village.  (The university's primary and secondary energy sources are its co-generation plant and Con-Ed.)  Eighth, a committee has been convened to plan for landscape restoration after the remediation is completed.

Current information about the oil leak remediation can be found at the NYU Construction page > Washington Square Village including Community Air Quality Monitoring Results.  The most recent results show "action level exceedences" which have been attributed to various maintenance work at 4 Washington Square Village.  A (brief) spill record can be read here via the NYS Department of Conservation website (the project number is Spill No. 0910543).  In other university news, a new proposed expansion plan was released today.  Read WNYC reporting here.

Then & Now: Changes in urban tree canopy at Columbus Circle

The Manhattan-Bronx Route and the Brooklyn Route of New York City's subway system were completed in 1904.   In 1902 the privately-held Rapid Transit Construction Company established the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) to operate the two routes (The New York Subway, Its Construction and Equipment, Interborough Rapid Transit, 1904; republished in 2004).  The development of the station at Columbus Circle is the subject of this post.  (This post does not cover the BMT, the Independent Subway System, or even a history of the IRT.  For this information, visit nycsubway.org.)

Reading a recent Untapped New York post titled Central Park West, Over the Years, I was struck by the changes in the urban tree canopy on Broadway north of Columbus Circle between 1901 and 1912.  (The 1912 photograph of Columbus Circle shown in the Untapped New York post was taken in the winter, I think, so street trees would hardly stand out without their leaves.)

I commented on Michelle Young's post asking if she knew the reason for the changes in the street tree canopy though a quick search of the Library of Congress and the web revealed that the IRT subway route was under construction during the time period of interest.  Michelle responded with answers from two students in the Central Park West Studio at Columbia University.

I found this picture from 1907 showing that (at least some of) the trees on Broadway survived the IRT construction. It looks like the trees are on a central median and also a dedicated “tree lawn” between the road and sidewalk. I’m guessing that the eventual widening of the sidewalk and the elimination of the central median probably had something to do with the loss of trees on Broadway. (- Alex Wallach)

I’m assuming the trees were removed for the later stages of the subway construction. They used the “cut and cover” method, so anything above the subway tunnels would have been removed. (-Julian Ferraldo)

The photograph Alex referred to was one I found in the Library of Congress Digital Archives.  It was taken in 1907 and is shown below.  Julian's assumption is supported by information in The New York Subway, Its Construction and Equipment, Interborough Rapid Transit, 1904 (2004).

View the changes yourself.

Image: Rapid transit work at 59th St. & Central Park west, June 8th, 1901 (source)

Image: Supporting elevated railroad by extension girders -- 64th Street and Broadway (The New York Subway, page 45)

An excerpt from the description of the "methods of construction, typical subway":

The work was all done by open excavation, the so-called "cut and cover" system, but the conditions varied widely along different parts of the line, and different means were adopted to overcome local difficulties....The natural difficulties of the route [presence of rock near the surface or loam and sand] were increased by the network of sewers, water and gas mains, steam pipes, pneumatic tubes, electric conduits and their accessories, which filled the streets; and by the surface railways and their conduits....*
As the subway is close to the surface along a considerable part of its route, its construction involved the reconstruction of all the underground pipes and ducts in many places, as well as the removal of projecting vaults and buildings, and, in some cases, the underpinning of walls. (The New York Subway, pages 40-43)

Image: Subdivision of 36" and 30" gas mains over roof of subway -- 66th Street and Broadway (The New York Subway, page 43)

About construction at Columbus Circle and north to 104th Street:

The method of undermining the tracks on Broadway from 60th to 104th Streets was entirely different, for the conditions were not the same. The street is a wide one with a 22-foot parkway in the center, an electric conduit railway on either side, and outside each track a wide roadway.  The subway excavation extended about 10 feet outside each track, leaving between it and the curb ample room for vehicles.  The construction problem, therefore, was to care for the car tracks with a minimum of interference with the excavation.  (page 45)

Image: Columbus Circle, New York, 1907 (source) -- view larger image here

Image: Columbus Circle, New York, 2011 (Microsoft BING Bird's Eye)

* A time when trees were not considered (essential) infrastructure!  From the MillionTreesNYC website: "By planting one million trees, New York City can increase its urban forest—our most valuable environmental asset made up of street trees, park trees, and trees on public, private and commercial land."

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, not quite

This past weekend was positively spring-like but the full buds of the magnolias buds did not burst.  Instead we are offering magnolias in bloom at the Portland Classical Chinese Garden.  The photograph was taken on March 21, 2004 by Kelly Brenner of Metropolitan Field Guide.

Image: Magnolia flowers courtesy of Kelly Brenner/ Metropolitan Field Guide (source)

View the complete Garden photoset at the Metropolitan Field Guide's Flickr page.  Also, Kelly is a fine artist and created a large postcard collection based on "draw different aspects of the garden." The postcards can be seen here.

See more bloggers' gardens in bloom at May Dreams Gardens.

There was nothing like water in the world

From Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls (pages 148-149):

The water you kids were playing in, he said, had probably been to Africa and the North Pole.  Genghis Khan or Saint Peter or even Jesus himself might have drunk it.  Cleopatra might have bathed in it.  Crazy Horse might have watered his pony with it.  Sometimes water was liquid.  Sometimes it was rock hard---ice.  Sometimes it was soft---snow.  Sometimes it was visible but weightless---clouds.  And sometimes it was completely invisible---vapor---floating up in the sky like the souls of dead people.  There was nothing like water in the world, Jim said.  It made the desert bloom but also turned rich bottomland into swamp.  Without it we'd die, but it could also kill us, and that was why we loved it, even craved it, but also feared it.  Never take water for granted, Jim said.  Always cherish it.  Always beware of it.

Arboles de Madrid: Roble lucombeano

Last time we featured Aligustre del Japon also known as Ligustrum lucidum or glossy privet from Rafael Moro's (2007) Arboles de Madrid. Today, in this occasional series titled after Moro's book, we look at Roble lucombeano also known as Quercus suber x cerris or Lucombes oak. Kew Gardens lists this oak as Lucombe oak or Quercus x hispanica 'Lucombeana.'

Image: Quercus cerris (Turkey oak), one parent of Lucombe(s) oak (source)

Moro's Roble lucombeano is located in the Real Club de Golf Puerta de Hierro. The name "lucombeano"

procede del vivero forestal de Lucombes (Exeter) Inglaterra, donde se realizó artificialmente la hibridacíon entre las dos especies de Quercus....La corteza es gris cremosa pálida, finamente divida en resaltes suberosos muy pequeños o gris oscura, más profundamente fisurada en cortos resaltes no suberosos....Las hojas son verde amarillento oscuras por el haz, verde gris con apretada pubescencia por el envés, grandes, someramente lobuladas, mucronadas, a menudo con un amplio y profundo seno cerca de la parte de la hoja.

Thank you Mr. Lucombe of Exeter for crossing Quercus cerris and Q. suber in 1772.

Main River's planetree allee

Thank you to Lin I. for the photograph of the pollarded planetree allee along a stretch of the Main River in Frankfurt.

Of the trees Lin wrote:

They were planted alongside the Main River in Frankfurt. I was not sure what kind of tree they were (and made a note that I should ask my forester friend - Georgia) but they were beautiful.  I loved walking underneath the canopy -- I felt transported to a different century.

Ecologies of Gold: The Past and Future Mining Landscapes of Johannesburg

We highly recommend the detailed slideshow titled Ecologies of Gold: The Past and Future Mining Landscapes of Johannesburg by Dorothy Tang & Andrew Watkins on Places [at] Design Observer. The narrative is wonderfully constructed but we were struck by the photographs, in particular the two that depict Johannesburg's trees.  With permission from Places Journal and the authors, we feature them below with the original descriptions.

Image: Urban tree canopy, Johannesburg, photo by Dorothy Tang

Beginning in the early 1900s, the city of Johannesburg introduced large shade trees to alleviate airborne dust from the mining belt. Originally a semi-arid grassland ecosystem, Johannesburg now boasts the largest urban canopy in the world. Most trees are alien species from other parts of the world, such as Jacaranda, Eucalyptus and English Oak, and many require large quantities of water for irrigation, an added burden to a region with limited water resources.

Image: Eucalyptus grove, Johannesburg, photo by Dorothy Tang

The native Australian tree Eucalyptus was introduced by Australian gold miners to provide strong timber support for deep shaft mining and related construction. In addition, its high evapotranspiration rate encouraged mining companies to plant it near the foot of mine dumps to capture excess contaminated run-off. Today eucalyptus presents a hazard in informal settlements because of its short life span; the falling limbs and trunks of overgrown mature trees are a hazard in communities that do not have the means to manage their growth.

Single dead bird not eligible for removal

While completing an errand I spotted a dead house sparrow on the sidewalk.  (Note: A photograph of the bird is at the end of this post.)  I live in NYC so I called 311 and spoke with two agreeable operators.  I was directed to the second operator by the first because the second operator handles these types of calls (dead animals).  The second operator informed me that because there was only one dead bird at the location, it was not eligible for removal by the Department of Health West Nile Virus Dead Bird Monitoring program.  The department now only takes "reports of groups of dead birds (10 or more of any species, or 3 or more waterbirds)."  I am not a forensic ornithologist; I do not know how the bird died.

Before transferring my call, the first operator did mention that if I were the property owner I could place the bird in a thick garbage bag for disposal.  I was simply a passer-by.  It was only two days later while searching for dead animal removal in NYC that I found the Department of Sanitation Dead Animal Removal Request form.  I submitted a request but the department allows itself a resolution window of 10 business days.

Update on Treespotting for the International Year of Forests

Original Post, February 4, 2011: Many of you probably know that 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit and February 3 was the Chinese New Year.  But did you know that on February 2, 2011 the UN General Assembly launched the International Year of Forests 2011 (Forests 2011)?  The UN webcast of the launch can be viewed here.

The coordinating agency in the U.S. is the Forest Service.  As of this writing, no events have been posted to the Forest Service's Forests 2011 website, but an international calendar of events can be found here.

Local ecologist will celebrate Forests 2011 by treespotting New York City's urban forest.  More specifically, throughout the year, we will photograph the 90 street tree species that comprise the urban forest in the borough of Manhattan. The 10 most common species in Manhattan, according to the 2005 street tree census are:

1. Honeylocust 23.3%
2. Callery pear 15.7%
3. Ginkgo 9.9%
4. London planetree 8.2%
5. Littleleaf linden 6.3%
6. Pin oak 5.4%
7. Japanese zelcova 4.1%
8. Japanese pagoda tree 3.3%
9. American elm 2.6%
10. Northern red oak 2.3%

We will share photographs and stories of these species and as many of the 80 other species we can find and identify. 

Here is our first treespotting: a Callery pear on West 3rd Street that we adopted as part of the city's "million tree" initiative.

Note: photograph was deleted.

Join us in celebrating Forests 2011 by treespotting in your town or city and sharing your photographs on our Facebook page.

Update, March 2, 2011: Our Treespotting Project is now on our Facebook page local ecology & ecologist.  We will share our photographs of Manhattan's 90 street tree species there.  Don't forget to treespot in your city!

Increasing urban tree canopy in New York City

An occasional series about the street tree research as well as the rules and regulations of street tree planting, pruning, and removal in New York City. Other posts in the series are Young street tree mortality in New York City, Street tree planting rules in New York City, Street tree removal in New York City, and Street tree pruning rules in New York City.

Locke et al. (2010) developed a GIS-based model to predict the preferred locations for planting trees in New York City based on two types of data: need-based criteria (read: planting trees to address environmental and social challenges) and biophysical constraints.  Their research -- Prioritizing Preferable Locations for Increasing Urban Tree Canopy in New York City -- was published in the recent issue of Cities and the Environment and the authors concluded that the model is applicable to other cities.

Friends of the Urban Forest tree tag, Valley Street, San Francisco

The abstract reads,

This paper presents a set of Geographic Information System (GIS) methods for identifying and prioritizing tree planting sites in urban environments. It uses an analytical approach created by a University of Vermont service-learning class called “GIS Analysis of New York City's Ecology” that was designed to provide research support to the MillionTreesNYC tree planting campaign. These methods prioritize tree planting sites based on need (whether or not trees can help address specific issues in the community) and suitability (biophysical constraints and planting partners’ existing programmatic goals). Criteria for suitability and need were based on input from three New York City tree-planting organizations. Customized spatial analysis tools and maps were created to show where each organization may contribute to increasing urban tree canopy (UTC) while also achieving their own programmatic goals. These methods and associated custom tools can help decision-makers optimize urban forestry investments with respect to biophysical and socioeconomic outcomes in a clear and accountable manner. Additionally, the framework described here may be used in other cities, can track spatial characteristics of urban ecosystems over time, and may enable further tool development for collaborative decisionmaking in urban natural resource management.

Hat tip: the California ReLeaf blog.

Green in the water closet

Not something we typically blog about, the home bathroom, but two recent articles about plants in said space caught our attention.

Image: Phyto-Purification Bathroom, image courtesy of Jun Yasumoto (source)

The first is Jun Yasumoto's Phyto-Purification Bathroom in which "water from the shower and the washbasin is filtered through an organic system before being re-used."

Image: Phyto-Purification Bathroom mechanics, image courtesy of Jun Yasumoto (source)

Filtration is a five-step process detailed here and involves four types of plants: rushes, reeds, water hyacinths, and lemnas (duckweed family).

Image: Moss Carpet, image courtesy of La Chanh Nguyen (source)

We spotted La Chanh Nguyen's Moss Carpet -- the second plant-based bathroom product -- on the Cohabitaire blog.  La Chanh responded to our questions about her design intent.

The idea was to a new way of having your plants inside. Not only plants in pots quietly standing in the corner of a living room but alive plants, evolving in the house. (The object and the plants used stimulate our different senses.) This bathroom carpet is made of recycled latex foam mainly coming from vegetal sources. Each cell welcomes a piece of moss (forest moss).* The humidity of the bathroom and the drops flowing from the body water the mosses. This vegetation carpet procures a great feeling to your feet.

Image: Moss Carpet base, image courtesy of La Chanh Nguyen (source)

La Chanh also wrote to us that because she had been fielding a lot of interest in the moss carpet, she partnered with a French company to commercialize the carpet which is now available worldwide via HoO design. Because of plant importation restrictions, the base is sold separately so that customers can plant the cells with local vegetation.

*Read more about the threatened/endangered status of forest moss:
Huge Market for Forest Moss Raises Concerns (Science Daily)
Moss Conservation behind Bars (Conservation Magazine)